Monday, September 1, 2025

Music Week

September archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 44780 [44745] rated (+35), 22 [24] unrated (-2).

August is done and dusted. Having learned as a child that summer is the school break from June through August (or Memorial Day through Labor Day), I'd say summer is done too. Were I to look back at my notebooks and planning documents from May, I'm sure I'd be deeply depressed at how little I have to show for this summer -- especially as I recall looking forward to post-operation eyesight, some fairly ambitious home projects, a new car which could make travel possible again, and a newly restructured view of my writing projects. Truth is, I've made some progress on all of those fronts, but they're all unsettled, while time is marching on, or maybe even running out.

I've offered lists of things to do the last couple weeks. Little point in repeating them here. Perhaps I'll have more to show next week. I will note that while I predicted the rated count would fall this week, it's held up pretty well (35 albums), but more notable is the quantity and quality of the A-list albums (8, with 2 at full A grades), and mostly surprises (only 2-3 I had expectations for: Zenón is always good; Cat & the Hounds was Joe Bebco's mid-year top pick and right up my alley; I expected Hooker to be good, but more like 2024's high-B+ The Charcot Sessions). Two albums came from Saving Country Music's mid-year list, two more from Hip-Hop Golden Age's evolving list, and several HM from both sources. I had seen a fair amount of hype for the Jaleel Shaw album, but was in no rush to seek it out, until a copy showed up in the mail (along with the Hancock album I had requested, and the nearly as good Rubalcaba). One thing is that many of the reviews offer very little beyond a slugline and a grade.

Nothing more on Jazz Critics Poll to report. I'm still planning on running it this year, but it's unlikely I'm going to find time to do much more than that. I also made no progress on writing my next Notes on Everyday Life post, after outlining it last week. I did think about a new intro, on why the donor class is willing to indulge Trump's revolutionary fantasies but is terrified of Sanders and other democratic leftists. My guess is that once I start, the piece will come together quickly. But getting to it is a problem. I'm also thinking about using Substack's Notes outlet, less to promote my longer pieces than because much of what I'm thinking about can be written up in a single paragraph, although fitting the character count limits in X and Bluesky can be a pain.

Beyond that, I'm thinking about doing a couple of actual "everyday life" posts: one on the computer I've been building -- which is ready for its smoke test, although I'd still like to tidy up some of the strangling wires (which are too many and often too long); another is a post on the recycling kiosk, which I expect to cobble together as soon as the woodpile project is completed (again, just some tidying up to do before working on the kiosk). Both have been humbling experiences, although I'm sure they'll be remembered more kindly once they're working. Meanwhile, I'm taking the Cassidy book at a leisurely pace, just finishing the chapter on John Hobson's critique of imperialism, which still hasn't sunk in very deep in Washington.

I do have a few Loose Tabs, but they're very hit-and-miss, the longest section the one on Trump administration corruption. I recommended an article, In Trump's D.C., the swamp runneth over, on Bluesky. I got a question today, from Canada, which reads in part:

I know you're astonished with how many people actually voted for an obviously deranged loon, but do you think his voters will ever see through or even care about the grift he's carrying out. Will ordinary joes raise their voices, or will that result in blood in the streets?

With these military deployments, do you think there could be a backlash within the ranks to stop the madness? A little extreme, I know, but things are getting a lot out of hand.

I'm not a good person to be asking this to, partly because I see much more of what's going on than most people do, and partly because I tend to err on the side of optimism (which was much more fashionable when I was a child than it's since become). But since you asked, I think this comes down to a few key questions:

  1. Is Trump going to be popular enough in 2026 (and 2028) for Republicans to win? I don't think he is now, and I don't think there is any chance that his acts are going to help him out. On the other hand, Democrats are also very unpopular right now, but as they are out of power, they're more likely to benefit from Trump's unpopularity than be hurt by their own. Republicans were very unpopular in 2008 and 2020, but for reasons that were largely forgotten about two years later. On the other hand, they do seem to benefit from a double standard.
  2. If Trump sees not being able to win, and if his options to cheat are insufficient, will he try to derail the elections? I don't see how he could do this, but I don't doubt that he would try if he could. Short of this, he does have lots of options to influence the election, and these could (and probably will) get really ugly.
  3. If the elections are held and Republicans lose, could he prevent the winners from taking office? Aside from litigating a few close races, this would amount to staging a coup. While the military is likely to support many normally illegal Trump orders, this would be a very big ask.

The US is a pretty complex political system, with lots of independent power distributed among many institutions. Since inauguration, Trump has made an unprecedented attempt to grab more power than any previous president. And I think he's been more successful than anyone would have predicted, in large part because many institutions -- including big law firms, universities, newly anti-woke businesses, and much of the media -- have knuckled over without a fight. Businesses and financiers are still pretty confident they can buy what they need. And the Republican-packed courts have repeatedly bowed to their "unitary executive." So right now, we don't have a good sense of where everyone's red lines lie. The big player here is the media, which while nowhere near as formidable as in the past can still emerge as as a public conscience to save democracy. Democrats had little success in 2024 painting Trump as a threat to democracy, because most people, led by most of the media, didn't buy the menace. Canceling elections, stealing them, and/or staging a coup could tip the balance, and turn resistance from a seemingly irrational obsession of "premature antifascists" to something mainstream patriots can get behind.

On the other hand, note that even if Democrats win big in 2026, Trump will still be president for two more years, and can still do a lot more damage -- especially if the Supreme Court effectively blesses his dictatorial impulses. And it's going to take decades and/or unprecedented radical democratic majorities to undo the consequences of a monumentally foolish electorate in 2024. As for the Democrats, that's another can of worms.

PS: I should perhaps revise this to note that not everyone is rolling over for Trump. There has been a lot of resistance (and much more grumbling), and I expect that to continue and to grow. Many of the early rollovers came from organizations that wanted to roll over, and they've mostly just embarrassed themselves. (The Washington Post comes to mind, but I've hardly even looked at it since January.) I haven't paid a lot of attention to this growing opposition, as it's had very little effect so far, other than to make people more aware of the problems. But no matter how loudly activists exhort you to march and petition and agitate, the next chance the public will have to make their views felt will be the 2026 elections, still long off. So it's not a bad idea to pace yourself.

As for the Democrats, I've said all along that the old leadership is discredited -- there may be lots of explanations for losing to Trump, but there really are no excuses -- and that whatever new leadership emerges will be measured by how effectively they oppose Trump. Sanders' anti-oligarchy tour was a start, and the response has been heatening. Otherwise, I haven't been much impressed by any Democrats, but they're cautiously testing the waters, pacing themselves. As for the congressional leadership, I figure they're basically playing a "rope-a-dope" game, and I can see where that makes sense at the moment: they don't have the votes, and it does them little good to come off as martyrs. I'm skeptical about this as a strategy, but the longer Trump thinks he can get away with his power grab legally, the less time he'll have to engineer a coup.

When we bought the car, I considered the possibility of driving to Arkansas for the annual Brown Family Reunion. I did see a post today from a distant relative I could have met there, referring back to his "8th great-grandfather, Jeremiah Brown Sr. (1687-1767)," and providing a link to Jeremiah Brown House and Mill Site," a National Register Historic Place in Maryland originally built in 1757 by Brown. I've never seriously looked into my genealogy, but figure it might be an interesting sideline to the memoir project. I do know a bit about my ancestors back to the Civil War, after which Abraham Hull moved from Pennsylvania to western Kansas, and Matthew Brown moved from Ohio to northern Arkansas. I know that Abraham had a grandfather who immigrated in 1798, a refugee from the failed revolution in Ireland. So it looks like the Browns go back even further, but still count as refugees. Good chance John Brown is another distant relative (or so I've been told). None of this has any obvious bearing on how I turned out.

New records reviewed this week:

Gino Amato: Latin Crossroads 2 (2025, Ovation): Pianist, sequel to his 2024 album, arranged a set of standards for latin big band and singers, like "Moonlight in Vermont" and "I Love Paris" and "Windmills of Your Mind" and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard." B+(*) [cd]

Oren Ambarchi & Eric Thielemans: Kind Regards (2023 [2025], AD 93): Australian guitarist, lots of records since 1998, duo here with a Belgian drummer, ducking and weaving through two sides, 47:12. B+(**) [sp]

Oren Ambarchi/Johan Berthling/Andreas Werlin: Ghosted III (2024 [2025], Drag City): Guitar/bass/drums trio, the latter two Swedish, third album together. B+(***) [sp]

Apollo Brown & Bronze Nazareth: Funeral for a Dream (2025, Escapism): Detroit hip-hop producer Erik Stephens, many albums since 2009, with rapper Justin Cross, less famous but has a lot of credits since 2002. A- [sp]

Rodney Crowell: Airline Highway (2025, New West): Quality country singer-songwriter since 1978, another fine batch of songs. B+(***) [sp]

Jesse Daniel: Son of the San Lorenzo (2025, Lightning Rod): Country singer-songwriter, fifth (or 6th?) album since 2018. B+(**) [sp]

Matt Daniel: The Poet (2025, self-released): Country singer-songwriter from Texas, seems to have a previous album. Don't know from poet, but he's a pretty classic-sounding songster. B+(***) [sp]

Joe Ely: Love & Freedom (2025, Rack 'Em): Legendary Lubbock singer-songwriter, started in the Flatlanders, his 1978 Honky Tonk Masquerade is an all-time favorite, and he's had lots of good ones since then, most recently 2024's Driven to Drive -- but that one was reconstructed from older demos. This was also based on home studio demos, but no info on how old they are. (One song talks about being 30 but feeling 45. Ely's 78 now.) Still sounds pretty good. B+(***) [sp]

Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds Featuring Catherine Russell: Cat & the Hounds (2024 [2025], Turtle Bay): "A 1920s Jazz and Blues Centennial," arranged and produced by Hancock, who plays cornet and C-melody sax. Seems to be his first album, but he scored a coup in getting the singer. Only band member I recognize is Evan Christopher (clarinet/alto sax), but Vince Giordano (bass sax) guests. Terrific songs from the real jazz era. A- [cd]

The Hives: The Hives Forever Forever the Hives (2025, PIAS): Swedish post-punk group, five albums 1997-2012, a hiatus from the departure of their bassist ("Dr. Matt Destruction") and ended in 2023 with The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons (an alias credited with their songwriting). Title song suggests they've found the secret to endurance, which is keeping it simple, but also fast and loud. B+(***) [sp]

Cody Jinks: In My Blood (2025, Late August): Country singer-songwriter, from Texas, styled outlaw, started in a thrash metal band, 11th album since 2006, has got the voice and knows a few licks. B+(*) [sp]

Olivia Ellen Lloyd: Do It Myself (2025, self-released): Country singer-songwriter, originally from West Virginia, now based in Brooklyn, has a previous album from 2021 (Loose Cannon). B+(***) [sp]

Tony Logue: Dark Horse (2025, Jenny Ridge Productions): Country singer-songwriter, has a couple previous albums. Hard worker, Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. "The road I'm on is dark and dirty/ It's that crazy that keeps me sane." B+(***) [sp]

Roberto Magris: Lovely Day(s) (2024 [2025], JMood): Italian pianist, couple dozen albums since 1990. This one is solo, starts with an original, then hits the usual bases (doubling up on Monk and Andrew Hill), in fine fashion. B+(***) [cd]

Juliet McConkey: Southern Front (2025, Soggy Anvil): Country singer-songwriter, out of Austin, second album. B+(*) [sp]

Brad Mehldau: Ride Into the Sun (2025, Nonesuch): Pianist, got his start on Fresh Sound in 1993 before landing on a major label in 1995 and soon moving through his remarkable The Art of the Trio series. Since then he's diversified, with everything from Bach to Beatles and solos to big bands. This is about half orchestra, with some vocals and flutes and such, most playing Elliot Smith songs. Some nice piano spots, but not much else I find interesting. B [sp]

Nerves Baddington: Driving Off Cliffs (2025, Apt. B Productions): Birmingham, AL duo, Inkline the rapper and Kilgore Doubt the producer, have a couple previous albums I've liked. B+(**) [sp]

Cam Pierce: A Thousand Lonely Horses (2025, self-released): Country singer-songwriter from Oregon, based in Nashville, leans toward the western end of c&w, seems to have a couple previous albums but I'm finding almost nothing on the internet: just one SCM review, and a streaming widget. Songs are solid-plus, voice good, pace assured. A- [os]

Ken Pomeroy: Cruel Joke (2025, Rounder): Country singer-songwriter, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, third album. B+(***) [sp]

Queen Herawin: Awaken the Sleeping Giant (2025, Matic): New York rapper, sophomore album. Dense and powerful. Done prematurely at 32:22, but no regrets. A- [sp]

Ravita Jazz: Alice Blue (2025, Ravita Music): Bassist Phil Ravita, from Baltimore, has a previous album co-led by Skip Grasso, wrote most of the originals, plus a couple from pianist Greg Small, while covering "I Can't Stand the Rain" and a medley of Led Zeppelin and "Sunny Side of the Street." Features saxophonist Paul Carr. B [cd]

Steve Rosenbloom Big Band: San Francisco 1948 (2024 [2025], Glory): Alto saxophonist, has a side-credit from 1983 and a quintet album from 1997, but not a lot more, as his main gig seems to have been in psychiatry. Original pieces, conventional big band. It's possible my CD is defective, as it sounds awfully murky, but crystal clarity wouldn't help much either. [PS: If it was meant to sound like this, drop the grade to D.] C [cd]

Gonzalo Rubalcaba/Chris Potter/Eric Harland/Larry Grenadier: First Meeting: Live at Dizzy's Club (2022 [2025], 5Passion, 2CD): Cover just lists their first names, which is sufficiently unique for the pianist, probably first guess for the saxophonist, and probably surmisable for the others (at least if you assume drums and bass). This is about as good as you'd expect: Potter steals the show, as he often does, and hearing him expound at length is always a pleasure, as is the pianist when he inserts one of his distinctive solos. B+(***) [cd]

Jaleel Shaw: Painter of the Invisible (2022 [2025], Changu): Alto saxophonist, originally from Philadelphia, half-dozen albums since 2005, Discogs lists 57 performance credits, has some range and isn't real consistent but finds a nice post-Coltrane vibe here and expands on it at length (11 tracks, 71:13). Mostly quartet with Lawrence Fields (fender rhodes), Ben Street (bass), and Joe Dyson (drums), with spots for Lage Lund (guitar) and Sasha Berliner (vibes), one track on piano. A- [cd]

Sam Stoane: Tales of the Dark West (2025, Cloverdale): Cowgirl from rural California, first album, originals plus covers of Gene Autry ("Back in the Saddle Again") and Rodney Crowell ("Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"). A- [sp]

Turnpike Troubadours: The Price of Admission (2025, Bossier City): Honky tonk band from Oklahoma, 7th album since 2007, a favorite of Saving Country Music, I've never been much impressed. B+(*) [sp]

Molly Tuttle: So Long Little Miss Sunshine (2025, Nonesuch): Singer-songwriter, fifth album since 2019, last two topped the bluegrass charts, but Saving Country Music reviewed but refused to grade this "sad development that the Millennial Queen of Bluegrass has gone pop" and adds that producer Jay Joyce "deserves to get chlamydia from the Tyler Childers koala." I'd have to look that one up, but offhand seems dumb and mean. I had to look Joyce up too: produced albums since 1998, mostly starting with Nashville artists like Eric Church and Patty Griffin (and more recently Ashley McBryde and Lainey Wilson) and making them slightly more pop, although it doesn't seem like he's made anyone into something alien (at least not Brandy Clark or Miranda Lambert). Here she wrote the songs here (most with fiddler Ketch Secor; two more leaned on Kevin Griffin; then there's the Charli XCX cover). They're fine (a couple better than that). B+(**) [sp]

Vega7 the Ronin/Machacha: The Ghost Orchid (2025, Copenhagen Crates): Rapper from Queens, eighth album since 2022, with Danish producer Mattæus Overgaard Jensen, prolific since 2016, second album together. B+(***) [sp]

Hayley Williams: Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party (2025, Post Atlantic): Singer-songwriter, started 2005 fronting the group Paramore (6 albums through 2023; she's the only continuous member) before releasing a solo album in 2020, this her third. So well hooked only indifference holds me back. B+(**) [sp]

Miguel Zenón Quartet: Vanguardia Subterranea: Live at the Village Vanguard (2024 [2025], Miel Music): Alto saxophonist, from Puerto Rico, long-running quartet with Luis Perdomo (piano), Hans Glawischnig (bass), and Henry Cole (drums), celebrates their 20th anniversary with their first-ever live album, drawn from a six-day stand. They've been producing superb studio albums all along, taking Latin idioms and distilling them (and Coleman and Coltrane) into conventional quartet form all along, so it's no surprise that this is also superb. Some day I expect the whole series to get boxed up, as with Art Pepper. A [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

John Lee Hooker: The Standard School Broadcast Recordings (1973 [2025], BMG): Major bluesman, born (1912?) to sharecroppers in Mississippi, left home for Memphis, wound up in Detroit in the 1940s, recording his first hits in 1948-49, and plying his trade up to his death in 2001, recording duets and guest spots with anyone who would have him, which by then was pretty much everyone (cf. The Best of Friends). While fans came and went, he managed to sound ancient and primeval in the 1950s, and even more so in the 1990s. This is a previously unreleased studio session, recorded in San Francisco, with piano-bass-drums backup (notable is his 20-year-old son, Robert Hooker, on piano), playing long, relaxed versions of 8 songs (58:17), some reworked classics and some jams. It was commissioned for "a groundbreaking educational program sponsored by Standard Oil (later Exxon)," only three of which were broadcast. Less intense, but as satisfying as anything he ever recorded. A [sp]

Steve Tintweiss and the Purple Why: Live in Tompkins Square Park 1967 (1967 [2025], Inky Dot Media): Cover also notes: "NYC Free Jazz," and lists names across the top banner: Jacques Coursil (trumpet), Perry Robinson (clarinet), Joel Peskin (tenor sax/bass clarinet), Randy Kaye (drums./piano), Laurence Cook (drums), Steve Tintweiss (bass/vocals/percussion/composer/leader), James DuBoise (guest trumpet). Tintweiss played on some ESP-Disk and related albums (1966-70), and appeared on some Amy Sheffer albums in the 1980s, but had nothing under his own name until he started rifling through old tapes in 2019. Not extraordinary nor outrageous, but I take a little nostalgic joy in this primitive squelchiness. B+(**) [cd]

Zulu Guitar Blues: Cowboys, Troubadours and Jilted Lovers 1950-1965 (1950-65 [2025], Matsuli Music): Early, almost primeval roots of township jive. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

Brad Mehldau: Après Fauré (2023 [2024], Nonesuch): Established himself in the late 1990s as a major jazz pianist, so I've followed him pretty regularly, balking only when he seemed to stray too far into classical and/or soundtrack music, so I skipped this (and several other albums; working backwards here as long as I can stand it). Solo piano exercise, with five pieces by Gabriel Fauré (four nocturnes and an excerpt from "Piano Quartet No. 2") along with "Fauré-like" originals. Nice enough. B [sp]

Brad Mehldau: After Bach II (2017-23 [2024], Nonesuch): Solo, picks up some scraps from the session that produced his 2018 After Bach, and adds some extra material, again mixing in a few originals modeled on. I don't hate much of it, but my patience is wearing thin. B- [sp]

Brad Mehldau/Ian Bostridge: The Folly of Desire (2022 [2023], Pentatone): Piano and voice duo, the former composing in his archest classical mode, the latter a British tenor with a long list of recordings (since 1995), and evidently some reputation among lieder aficionados. I expected to hate this, and often I do, but Bostridge does have a remarkable voice, and after he's slogged through the 11 title songs, he finally puts it to good use, with an exceptional version of "These Foolish Things." Four more songs, including two by Cole Porter (and one by Schubert) are less striking, but they could make a decent standards album. B- [sp]

Perico Sambeat: Ademuz (1995 [1998], Fresh Sound New Talent): Spanish alto saxophonist, also plays flute, albums since 1990, appeared on Brad Mehldau's New York-Barcelona Crossing albums, takes the lead here, with Mehldau (piano) and Mark Turner (tenor sax) prominent on the cover, along with trumpet (Michael Leonhart), guitar (Kurt Rosenwikel), bass, drums, percussion, and voice (Enrique Morente). B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

  • Armen Donelian: Stargazer (Sunnyside) [10-03]
  • Phil Haynes & Free Country: Liberty Now! (Corner Store Jazz) [10-17]
  • Rubén Reinaldo: Fusión Olivica (Free Code Jazz) [06-04]
  • Jovino Santos Neto Quartet: Mais Que Tudo: Live at Kerry Hall 1995 (Origin) [09-19]
  • Craig Taborn/Nels Cline/Marcus Gilmore: Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic) [09-26]
  • Milan Verbist Trio: Time Change (Origin) [09-19]

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